About Us

Sebastian Brooke

Chairman

Christian Bryn

Board Member

Christian is a Board member or chairman of growth companies across Europe and the United States within software, technology, health care and professional services. He has 25 years of experience from private investments, business development, strategy, and active ownership, and he was previously with PwC and Clariden Bank in Zurich, Switzerland. Christian has a Master’s degree in business and finance (lic.oec.HSG) from University of St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Christian is also founding partner and CEO of Positron Capital, a specialized, independent asset manager within Private Markets investments, and Executive Director of the Hektor / Vindeggen group of investment companies, which focus on direct investments in private enterprises with a sustainable business model. He is currently located in Oslo, Norway.

Erland P. Bassoe

Board Member

Erland is the principle of Bassoe Offshore AS and has over three decades of knowledge and experience within the offshore oil services industry.

He has a passion and an extensive track record for start-ups and building successful businesses. During his career he has initiated, developed, financed and executed nine rig-owning companies and two firms within market data analysis and engineering services.

Ricardo Ferreira

Ricardo Ferreira

Ricardo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a MSc in Finance from BI Norwegian Business School. Prior to joining Esgian, he worked in the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) team at a publicly traded global software company, where he focused on the areas of financial control and process optimization.

He has a keen interest in innovation and sustainability. In his free time, Ricardo enjoys reading, learning new languages, cooking, and he is an avid sports enthusiast.

Kirstin Buttle-Ulvin

Kirstin Buttle-Ulvin

A seasoned Customer Experience and Marketing professional, Kirstin has a solid track record in elevating service quality, driving sales, and growing customer bases. With deep expertise in branding, event management, and communications from a leading fiduciary services group, she brings a wealth of experience from over a decade in Marketing Communications across Europe and Asia. After moving to Norway, Kirstin joined Pexip, a start-up that evolved into a secure video platform leader, where she spearheaded Customer Success and later focused on crafting impactful Customer Experience strategies across product, marketing, and sales.

Now, as part of Esgian, Kirstin is excited to align with a company that shares her passion for delivering objective insights into future emissions and climate policy, helping customers take meaningful, sustainable actions.

Steffen Kørte

Steffen Kørte

Steffen holds a Master of Science in Marine Cybernetics from NTNU and has extensive experience in the maritime offshore industry. He has worked on developing and managing control systems, with focus on software development and product management within digitalization. Steffen is dedicated to improving operational reliability and efficiency in maritime operations.

Mijeong Jang Rolfsen

Mijeong Jang Rolfsen

Mijeong has over 12 years of experience in international trade and shipping, working in both South Korea and Norway. Her expertise includes developing marketing strategies, conducting market and competitive analyses, providing market forecasts, and monitoring environmental regulations in the maritime industry.

Mijeong is customer-oriented and a team player, always striving to find innovative and sustainable solutions. She holds a master’s degree in Maritime Management from the University of South-Eastern Norway.

Lauren Anderson

Lauren Anderson

Lauren has over a decade of experience in the offshore wind industry, specializing in data and market intelligence across both startup and corporate environments.

Her passion for startups and innovative thinking fuels her ambition to provide industry players worldwide with accessible, reliable, and trustworthy information, enabling them to make well-informed decisions.

Joseph C Sajan

Joseph C Sajan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering and a Master’s degree in Marine Technology specializing in Marine hydrodynamics. He has developed his skills in numerical and experimental hydrodynamics. Joseph has experience working as an intern at the Indian Register of Shipping and at SINTEF Ocean. He also has experience in programming and application testing. As a Naval Architect, Joseph dreams about making his contribution to leaps lying ahead for the marine industry.

Jiafei Duan

Jiafei has more than 15 years’ experience in software development and 4 years in global maritime industry driving business digitalization. He approaches challenges with can-do spirit and has shown strong ability to drive change.

Sofia Forestieri

Sofia Forestieri

Sofia brings over five and a half years of expertise in operations and analytics within the energy sector, specializing in energy analysis, sustainability, and offshore rig operations. Her professional expertise spans from wireline field engineering offshore deepwater and onshore, to upstream and energy sustainability analysis, all over the world (Latin America, Europe, and the U.A.E.). Which sparked her passion for guiding clients on the optimal path forward in the energy transition.

Sofia holds a bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering and is a language polyglot. She is passionate about nature, sports, and cooking, finding her energy and inspiration while surrounded by nature.

Bartolomej Tomic

Bartolomej Tomic

Bartolomej has covered the offshore energy industry since 2010 as a journalist and editor of two offshore energy industry-focused publications, Offshore Energy Today and Offshore Engineer. He’s written articles on offshore oil and gas exploration, production, offshore wind, and CCS sectors and projects.

Bartolomej has a background in English language and literature.

Antonio Gonzalez

Antonio has for 17 years been dedicated to the maritime industry with roles in sales and commercial functions. His experience is related to shipping lines, RoRo carriers, forwarders and port terminals. Passionate to create relations with people and cultures from all over the world. Always with a positive open mind for the challenges to come.

Tollef Christiansen

Tollef has recently completed a Master’s degree in informatics at the University of Oslo and now works for Esgian as a backend developer. He enjoys problem solving in everything from systems programming to application development and databases. He has a keen interest in the maritime domain as well as digitalisation, sustainability, and technological progress.

Cristina Draghici

Cristina holds 25 years business experience in commercial account management and business operations, in Romania and United Arab Emirates. Her experience has taken her though extraordinary journeys in different business sectors, from entertainment industry to equipment and IT components solutions and not at least , in the Financial industry.

Cristina values the practicing of customer service excellence through consistently exceeding customer expectations in service delivery. Providing a high level of customer engagement is a philosophy she lives by, as it always leads to trust and advocacy.

Are Hole

Are has been instrumental within development, commissioning and rectifying drilling equipment and instrumentation on board offshore rigs over the last 15 years. He has over the years brought multiple drill-ships and semi-submersibles through SPS and facilitated approval of drilling packages on new builds.

Ivan Maruna

Ivan has a BSc in Computer science and 5+ years of experience in marketing & web to print solutions, both on the front end and back end. He is passionate about utilizing technology to enable the green shift.

Ueda Prengzi

Ueda has an academic background in Finance and Statistics, as well as programming skills related to Data Science, she brings a unique set of skills and experiences to her role. Prior to joining Esgian, she has been gaining her practical skills in Market Intelligence through her work with big data. She holds a great passion for AI and Analytics.

Hans Christoffer Gannestad

Hans has seven years of shipping/trading experience and three years in sales B2B SaaS. Hans is passionate about the green transition and establishing long-lasting relationships with clients to help them achieve their objectives. Hans holds a bachelor honors degree in maritime business from Southampton Solent University and is a language polyglot.

Fernando Cesar Ortiz Duran

Fernando holds 15+ years in the Oil and Gas Industry (4 years with NOV & 11 years with Seadrill). Fernando is an experienced Contract, Sales, and Marketing Manager with an Industrial Engineering background and the ability to translate market challenges into commercial language across different regions. Excellent reputation for resolving problems and improving the Oil & Gas Industry’s needs.

Project leader and a proactive team player capable of designing and promoting strategies to maximize profitability and contribute to the Company’s economic growth and sustainable development through KPIs.

Paul Large

Paul has over 30 years international experience delivering product solutions that create value and insight for customers across several market segments.

Working for a diverse range of companies has given Paul a clear insight on how customer engagement and satisfaction is key to any successful business.

Magnus Nordenfelt

Board Member

Kasper Grytnes

Kasper holds a Master’s in Finance from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and a Master’s in Management from CEMS. At Esgian he has focused on governmental offshore wind policies, understanding the challenges that lay ahead to implement sustainable energy solutions. Having experience as a consultant analyzing challenges in global supply chains, and an academic focus on the economics behind renewable power sources, his passion lies in the cross-section between macroeconomic trends and the green energy transition. He wants to use his knowledge to help clients better understand the challenges in the offshore wind industry and contribute to sustainable and informed decision making.

Mathias Taksdal

Mathias just returned from exchange studies at UC Berkeley and is now writing his master thesis on Electrical Energy Conversion at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Throughout his studies he has developed a keen interest in the energy transition and explored the emerging technologies to get there. At Esgian he is focused on rig emissions and power systems. He holds a year of internship experience from both Esgian and Equinor.

Faizan Tariq

Faizan holds a master’s degree in applied computer science from Ostfold University Norway. He has 2 years’ of experience in web and mobile application development. Previously Faizan worked with a startup company focusing on maximizing utilization of EV chargers using an app. He enjoys to trying new technologies and tools.

Eirik Flatebo

Board Member

Bjorn Kilde

Bjorn has over 20 years’ experience in the maritime and shipping industry both domestic and abroad. He has worked for some of Norway’s major ship owning companies primarily within technical operation and commercial operation of vessels. Bjorn holds a bachelor’s degree in commercial shipping and logistics from Vestfold University College. He is team result driven, strategically, commercially, and operationally focused. Humble and hardworking with broad international experience.

Sverre H. Stange

Board Member

Nicolai H. Grieg

Board Member

Prabin Parajuli

Prabin is a diligent software engineer with 5+ years of experience in web application and software development. He joined Esgian to improve sustainability through the digital world. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from OsloMet University. He is passionate about innovation, technology, and new challenges.

Nermina Kulović Čilić

Nermina has spent nearly nine years in the role of an editor at an energy-focused news website, devoting most of her time there to researching and writing about the offshore oil and gas industry.

She has a passion for tracking offshore drilling rigs and their activities but has also developed an interest in offshore renewables and energy transition trends, including carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen.

She has a background in English language and literature as well as translation studies.

Afrona Kodra

Afrona holds 9+ years of success driving business excellency within corporate sales and channel management in international markets (Albania, Dubai, U.A.E.). Prior to becoming an Esgian, her professional expertise reached various business sectors, from social consultancy to automotive and IoT technology solutions. The latter opened new interests in ESG, of being part of a mechanism that safeguards the environment and generates business revenues.

Afrona holds a master’s degree in Social Philosophy and has a great passion for chess. She believes that chess is a tool that can apply in business, as it is all about thinking strategically and foreseeing consequences, weighting options, and making strategic decisions.

Xia Li

Xia holds a Master’s degree of Design from The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) and she has a BE in industry design. Xia has worked as a full-time UX designer for over 4 years, specialized in SaaS product. She has worked in Blockchain technology and Real estate technology.

Thomas Berg

Thomas has more than 30 years’ experience within finance and strategy from both ownership, advisory and executive management positions. He is analytical and business oriented, and has a strong track record both from building operational excellence and from managing M&A processes.

Susanne Starheim-Grøtter

Susanne has experience within strategic operationalization, commercial processes of change and project management from the maritime industry. She is a productive visionary, holding a MSc in Business and Economics, and she is a typical people’s person committed to client service excellence.

Susanne Andresen

Susanne Andresen has five years of experience in communications and analysis with a special focus on the hydrogen, battery, and carbon capture and storage markets. She has previously worked in the US and Norway, and was most recently a founding member of Rystad Energy’s Global Energy Systems team. She holds a degree in literature and international relations, and is excited to support clients at the frontier of energy decision making.

Stian Omli

Stian has close to 20 years of international B2B experience from the global maritime industry in commercial and operational capacities. He is a result driven individual with a strong business mind-set and entrepreneurial spirit. Sound cultural awareness, people focus and ability to drive change.

Simen Tøftemo Solvang

Simen has over 16 years of international experience from commercial and operational deep- and short-sea RoRo shipping, as well as container and freight forwarding thus possess a broad market understanding. He is result driven with a strong commercial attitude, curious and analytical. Simen is committed to deliver solutions and services which ensures value to customers, with a systematic approach. Thrives where technology meets business and passionate about sustainable shipping.

Robel Amar

Robel holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and a MSc in Marine and Offshore Technology from the University of Stavanger. Through his exposure to a quantitative hydrodynamic study, he gained an interest to scientific programming. Robel has experience as teacher’s assistant at OsloMet at their AI Makerspace and as a research assistant at NTNU for a machine learning project regarding preventive maintenance of railroads.

Robel is passionate about mechanical design, marine analysis, and artificial intelligence.

Per Christian Grytnes

Per Christian (PC) has an extensive career and successful track-record in executive management for companies such as ODS-Petrodata, IHS Markit and Magseis Fairfield.

The core focus over his more than thirty years within the business has been driving innovation of analytical tools, products and platforms that support the energy industry.

Oliver Stephenson

Oliver has more than 15 years’ experience helping clients across the energy sector. After working as an upstream oil and gas analyst in the UK, Oliver moved to Singapore and worked in product management, sales and business development across Asia, with a focus on supporting the financial services sector. Now back in the UK once again, the aim of providing clients with better energy insight and analytics remains the same.

Nils Halvor Heieren

Nils has more than 20 years’ experience in technology and product development from engineering and management positions in WesternGeco Schlumberger and Magseis Fairfield.

He is analytical and business oriented, and has an extensive track record from managing multidisciplinary projects, IP portfolios and suppliers. Nils thrives in small to mid-sized companies with a skilled, diverse and dynamic organisation.

Matthew Donovan

Matthew Donovan is an experienced research analyst in the offshore drilling rig market. His previous employment includes over 10 years with ODS-Petrodata and IHS Markit, where he most recently served as the principal analyst covering floating rigs and jackups.

Matthew holds a BA from the University Of Texas at Austin.

Lavesh Gupta

Lavesh has 12 years of experience in software development and devops. He specializes in developing low latency, distributed, stateless applications for monolithic and micro-services platforms. In the past, he has worked in a variety of industries such as archiving, compliance, security, authentication, advertising, and logistics, and he is eager to take on new challenges in new sectors. He has experience in designing efficient and scalable solutions, both on-premises and cloud-based.

Lavesh has an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Rutgers University, USA. He is a technology enthusiast and an avid gamer.

Jostein Opsahl

Jostein has extensive experience working with maritime software both on the commercial and technical side of the industry. Initially as a Business Consultant on chartering and operations software and later as Operations Manager for technical software. He holds a MSc in Marine Technology from NTNU, specializing in Marine Systems Design. Jostein enjoys working in the intersection between business and technology, helping clients achieve goals by solving real problems.

John Ryan Tolson

Ryan has over 15 years of experience and broad knowledge in the financial industry ranging from risk management, business development, advisory and strategic partnerships. Ryan is passionate about the green transition and establishing long-lasting relationships and partnerships with clients to help them achieve their objectives. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal and business communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was also a scholarship recipient and member of the Men’s Lacrosse Team.

Johan Gustafsson

Johan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Renewable Energy Systems. He is passionate about the green transition and has explored a range of different renewable technologies through his studies. At Esgian he is focused on the life cycle and supply chain of the offshore wind industry, understanding the challenges that lays ahead. Having previously worked as a technical consultant and a scientific assistant, while also being engaged as a portfolio manager in his university financial institution, Johan thrives where technology meets business. He wants to use his knowledge to help clients make more informed and sustainable decisions in the offshore wind industry.

Jens Petter Hamang

Jens Petter (JP) has been working in the fields of market intelligence, product development, digitalization, and strategy for more than 15 years.

He has an extensive international business track record working in companies like IHS Markit, Capgemini Consulting and Magseis Fairfield – always with the objective to provide clients with the best possible decision support.

Jaro Aarseth

Jaro has over 20 years of experience from maritime and oil & gas sectors. Having started his career as a cadet at sea with a background in Marine Electro and Automation, Jaro has since been in offshore operations and has carried out numerous interventions and modifications of high calibre and newbuilds across the world. His passion lies in energy management, attaining technical approvals and supplier agreements in the offshore sector.

Iuliana Trufin

Iulia has a Computer Science degree and has worked with software testing within the maritime IT industry. Combining this experience with a wish to help creating a green environment through technology, she will also aid in understanding the user needs and creating future improvements for the Esgian applications.

Hieronymus Bassoe

Hiro has gained experience from several internships in the offshore industry. Having both a BA and MSc in history he is passionate about analytics and research. He holds a MSc from London School of Economics in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation.

Hans Olav Romestrand

Hans Olav has over 7 years of experience from the maritime industry, working with new technology within safety at sea and digitalization with some of the biggest shipowners in various segments. He has a degree in naval architecture and is passionate about everything related to the maritime ecosystem, and how implement new technology. He has work experience from technology startups, Polyform and most recently Inmarsat.

Hans Jacob Bassoe

Hans has experience as a shipbroker and advisor in the maritime industry working within a US based brokerage firm.

He has a passion for ocean industries and has previously held positions in both the Shipping and offshore sectors. He holds an MSc from Cass Business School in Shipping, Trade and Finance and MBA from Bocconi School of Management.

Hans Hagelberg

Hans has spent 40 years honing his skills and knowledge within the offshore oil & gas industry.

With a background in engineering, he gained 10 years of experience in various technical and managerial positions at the GVA shipyard in Sweden and Houston, Texas. Hans joined Bassoe Offshore in the early nineties and has been an integral part of the company, utilizing his expert within the offshore rig brokerage and project development teams out of the Houston and London offices.

Gudbrand Schistad

Gudbrand holds an MSc from The University of San Francisco, specializing in software development and distributed systems. He has worked as a full-stack engineer for 5+ years in several industries such as edtech and private equity. Gudbrand’s passion is to build client-facing software solutions, and he has, through his experience, gained in-depth knowledge in understanding client needs and user experience.

Eva Brocvielle

Eva brings over 15 years of Geoscience experience in the Energy Industry ranging from data acquisition, interpretation, technical sales and most recently Business Development at IHS Markit. Her career started in the Middle East working offshore/onshore for a service company, Baker Atlas (now Baker Hughes) and later made moved to Europe where she began her transition into Renewable Energy. She has a Bsc in Geology from Imperial College and Msc Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt.

David Carter Shinn

David has spent a large part of his career working with database programming and analysis, financial model design, and digital concept development.

He previously worked for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and Bassoe Offshore’s rig brokerage team. From 2017-2020 David led the creation of and managed the Bassoe Analytics offshore rig database and analysis application before its acquisition by Esgian.

Cinnamon Edralin

Cinnamon has more than 15 years of experience researching and analysing the offshore oil and gas drilling rig market. She previously worked for ODS-Petrodata, which was later acquired by IHS Markit. A commitment to lifelong learning and building her network have helped Cinnamon acquire market insights that can empower clients with their decision making.

Christoffer Laulund

Christoffer has worked extensively with IT products over the past few years, drawing on his broad background to bridge the gap between business and technology. Previously he has worked as an engineer, revenue manager, and product owner. He holds degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and General Management from Stockholm School of Economics.

Cedric Raguenaud

Cedric Raguenaud has worked nearly 30 years in software development, as software engineer and architect, first in the medical field, then bioinformatics, and finally in the energy sector. He has worked for companies such as Medireport, IHS Markit, as well as UK universities.

With his experience, an MSC in object-oriented software engineering and a PhD in object-oriented databases, he’s perfectly suited to lead the development of projects in modern environments.

Barry Young

Barry is an experienced sales professional with over 30 years’ track record delivering proven results to a diverse group of companies and industries.

Barry can clearly understand, analyse, and solve business requirements on a strategic, tactical, or individual level. He has a passion for customer service and developing strong, lasting customer relationships.

Axel Janson

Axel has 13 years of experience in the oil & gas industry, previously holding engineering positions in operator- and service companies like Equinor, Aibel and DNV. He is specialized in drilling and well operations as well as design of mobile offshore drilling units. With a keen interest in environmental technology and providing great customer service he has acquired a wide professional network throughout the global offshore industry.

He holds an MSc from Chalmers University of Technology in Industrial Engineering & Management.

Anton Fagerbakk

Anton has an MSc in Computer Science, and he specialized in natural language processing. He has experience in maritime software, software consulting and as a co-founder of an e-learning startup. Anton has worked with a myriad of technical solutions on both the front and back-end and is passionate about creating efficient and scalable systems.

Aje Singh Rihel

Aje has been working with market intelligence, analysis, and industry insights for more than 13 years, covering the upstream oil and gas industry for IHS Markit and the European carbon market (EU ETS) for Refinitiv (former Point Carbon).

Having deep understanding of the interplay between industry dynamics and climate policies, Aje is passionate about enabling the ocean industries in the transformation towards a low-emissions environment.

Håkon Bye

Håkon Bye

Håkon holds a Master of Science in Energy and Environment, which he completed in 2019. He has maintained his passion for the maritime green energy transition throughout his career, starting with his thesis about battery and fuel cell-powered ferries. Håkon participated in a maritime trainee rotation at ABB, after which he became a Simulation Product Specialist for Batteries and Fuel Cells. He later advanced to the role of R&D Product Manager for Energy Storage. Håkon possesses key expertise in powerplant operation optimalisation and emission reduction technologies.

ENERGY & EMISSION

RIGS

SHIPPING

WIND

Sustainability through insight and informed decisions

Why Esgian?

We are based in Oslo, Norway with offices in London, Dubai, Mexico City and Houston

Board of Directors

Sebastian Brooke

Sverre H. Stange

Erland P. Bassoe

Magnus Nordenfeldt

Christian Bryn

Our team brings a wealth of domain expertise, enthusiasm and digital innovation

Afrona Kodra

Aje Singh Rihel

Are Hole

Bartolomej Tomic

Bjorn Kilde

Cedric Raguenaud

Cristina Draghici

Erland P. Bassoe

Faizan Tariq

Fernando Cesar Ortiz Duran

Gudbrand Schistad

Hans Christoffer Gannestad

Hans Hagelberg

Hieronymus Bassoe

Håkon Bye

Iuliana Trufin

Ivan Maruna

Jaro Aarseth

Jens Petter Hamang

Jiafei Duan

John Ryan Tolson

Joseph C Sajan

Kasper Grytnes

Kirstin Buttle-Ulvin

Lauren Anderson

Lavesh Gupta

Mathias Taksdal

Matthew Donovan

Mijeong Jang Rolfsen

Nermina Kulović Čilić

Oliver Stephenson

Per Christian Grytnes

Prabin Parajuli

Ricardo Ferreira

Robel Amar

Simen Tøftemo Solvang

Sofia Forestieri

Steffen Kørte

Stian Omli

Thomas Berg

Tollef Christiansen

Ueda Prengzi

Xia Li

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ENERGY & EMISSION

RIGS

SHIPPING

WIND